Currently we follow the Gregorian calender and divided our day into hours, minutes and seconds. I was impressed with the ancient time system we had in India and been voraciously reading multiple books and articles on them. I was always fascinated by the inter connectivity of various disciplines in ancient India.
This article would highlight some of my understanding on the linkages of Time, Space and even Prana movements. I am deducing the breathing rhythm of King Dasarath, Lord Rama and Ravana based on these principles and also proposing as to what should be God's design in every Yuga - especially from a breathing rhythm and endowed life perspective. This may sound wacky to you. But i did not promise anything less in my blog spot. :)
Please note this analysis and deduction is from my kitchen and i have not read this anywhere yet. If you have any objections to this, I am open to receive your counter logic.
Lets get the basics first.
- Nazhigai (நாழிகை) in Tamil also known as Ghati in north India is actually 24 minutes.
- Vinaadi (விநாடி) is actually 1/60th of Nazhigai and hence it is 24 seconds.
- Nodi (நொடி) which is often mistaken as second is actually 1/60th of Vinaadi and hence it is 0.4 seconds.
So,
60 Nodi = 1 Vinaadi
60 Vinaadi = 1 Nazhigai
60 Nazhigai / Ghati = 1 day
Why is Nazhigai / Ghati the most important measurement in ancient India? Before we address this lets quickly look at some other interesting cross connections.
By design, we all have a budget of 21600 breaths a day. It is told that using your horoscope assuming the input details are right with respect time and day, the experienced astrologers can calculate your Pranic movement and its stoppage aka death using some formula. This aspect is not relevant for this article, yet it is highlighted here.
Now lets calculate how many Nazhigai is there in one year. Remember each year is 360 days and not 365.2425 days. I shall explain the reason later in a different blog as to why this is so.
1 day = 60 Ghati / Nazhigai
1 Year = 21600 Nazhigai.
Each year the earth revolves around the sun and one revolution makes 360 degrees. The same phenomenon is applicable in a day where the earth rotates around its axis.
Lets look at the day phenomenon first. Each day for one rotation covers 360 degrees in 24 hours. If we consider each breath as 1 degree, which is movement of Prana then 360 degrees is equal to 360 breaths. We complete 360 breaths in 24 minutes (24 hrs/60 and 21600/60) which is 1 Nazhigai. This means we can complete a full rotation of microcosm in about 24 minutes using our prana movement. Hence any japa or meditation done for a minimum 24 minutes if complete in itself. So, Nazhigai becomes the basic period / a fundamental building block for a complete microcosmic cycle.
Now lets look at how Breath, Space and time are integrated. 360 degrees which is a space measure is covered in 24 hours in a day and 360 days in a year.
360 Degrees = 24 hours
30 degrees = 2 hours (this is the duration of each Rasi / Zodiac in a day and covers 12 rasis in a day).
6 degrees = 1 Ghati / Nazhigai = 24 minutes.
1 degree = 4 minutes = 60 breaths.
And we have seen, 6 degrees = 1 Ghati = 360 breaths.
If you have got the depth of inter-connectivity between metrics you would be amazed. Let me try to emphasize this again. If i divide 1 day (24 hrs) by 60 it is 1 Nazhigai. If i divide 1 day (360 degrees) by 60 then it is 6 degrees and is 1 Nazhigai. So Nazhigai is a fundamental unit between time measurement in minutes / seconds / hours and space measurement in degrees.
On a yearly note:
360 degrees = 360 days
30 degrees = 30 days. This is duration of each rasi / zodiac and hence 12 zodiacs in a year of duration 30 days.
This also means Sun moves 1 day / day and covers 30 degrees per month and sun moves from one zodiac to another every month.
You may know that the Yugas are divided as:
1. Satya Yuga - 17,28,000 years
2. Treta Yuga - 12,96,000 years
3. Dwapara Yuga - 8,64,000 years
4. Kali Yuga - 4,32,000 years
All the four Yugas put together is 43,20,000 years which is a Maha yuga (this is 10 times the Kali Yuga).
Lets see the relation between Yuga and the number 21600. Keep it in mind that 21600 is the factor for number of breaths in a day and also number of Nazhigais / Ghatis in a year. The formula for linkages between Yuga and 21600 is as follows:
Satya Yuga = 21600 * 80
Treta Yuga = 21600*60
Dwapara Yuga = 21600*40
Kali Yuga = 21600*20
Maha Yuga = 21600*200
It is a well known fact through our Yogic scriptures that sages used to suspend their breathe during deep meditative stages. This means that it isn't a big deal to live for 43,200 years if we regulate our breath to 60 breaths a day. This means one breath per Ghati / Nazhigai (24 minutes). This can be quickly dismissed as mythological but lets look at some aspects of it.
Now lets work back and analyze the breathing patterns of historical characters.
It is told in Raghuvamsa by the great poet Kalidasa that 42 kings of Surya dynasty in which King Dasarath and Lord Rama came ruled for approximately 3 million years. This is Satya and Treta yuga put together - 3024000 years to be precise.
It is told that King Dasaratha (Lord Rama's father) lived for 60000 years and this means his breathing rhythm was just 1.8 breaths per hour / as against our 900. Alternatively we take 4 seconds for a breath and King Dasarath did it one in 33.33 minutes.
It is told, Lord Rama lived for 11000 years and this means his breathing rhythm was averaging approximately 10 an hour. I am sure the rhythm shot up during the 14 years in forest. :). Alternatively we take 4 seconds for a breath and Lord Rama did it one in 6.11 minutes.
I want to pause for a minute and highlight some "very intelligent" Hindu species in the net who date Lord Rama's date of birth in somewhere around 5000 BC. They have done it using some stupid astrological software which itself is as half baked as the researchers. Lord Rama lived in Treta Yuga which is 8,80,000 years (864000 years of Dwapara Yuga and ~5000 years of Kali yuga which is past and Rama has lived for 11000 years hence it should be 880000 years) before for sure. I shall write about this later in a different blog, but it is probably sufficient to say I trash all such nonsense, which does not pass through scriptural validation.
Coming back, you can deduce that the rest of the 40 solar dynasty kings including Manu lived for 73825 years on an average. And they averaged one breath every 41 minutes. This is across Satya and Treta Yuga.
It is told that Demon King Ravana got a boon to live for 30 million days. This means he lived for 83333.33 years. Hence his boon enabled a breathing rhythm with an average of just 1.3 breaths per hour or one breath in every 46.3 minutes.
Now I am proposing my analysis as to how God's design is for the breathing rhythm and default / endowed age based on every Yuga. Again there is no basis or book where i read or heard this. Just take this for what it is worth. This rhythm is the ideal design for determining the age of the individual during that Yuga and is an average.
I want you to recollect that our breathing rhythm by design in Kali yuga is 4 seconds for 1 breath and hence we should live an endowed life of 120 years. (Each year of 360 days). You can convert it into current Gregorian calender of 365.2425 days/ year if you want. Below is my analysis for every Yuga.
Kali Yuga - 4 Seconds / Breath, 360 breaths / nazhigai and endowed life is 120 years.
Dwapara Yuga - 40 Seconds / Breath, 36 breaths / nazhigai and endowed life is 1200 years.
Treta Yuga - 400 seconds / breath, 3.6 breath / nazhigai and an endowed life of 12000 years.
Satya Yuga - 4000 seconds / breath, 0.36 breath / nazhigai and an endowed life of 120000 years.
Per Vedic scriptures, Jiva - our life is linked to Prana and some say that Prana is Jiva. But the correct interpretation as per my understanding is Jiva is the witness to the movements of Prana. Movement of Prana is called our worldly life and this leads to identification of ourselves to the gross body.
If the movement of Prana is controlled through suitable techniques (Pranayama - btw, this is not the one that is taught in posh yoga studios now a days) then it is told that the Prana snaps its pseudo-identification with gross body, material world and realizes Jiva and its inseparability with Brahman.
Irrespective of what our mental state is, the supreme order in the universe is well tied into mathematical formula and this universal rhythm is called as Seelam (சீலம்) in Tamil. Einstein argued for the same and very famously quipped that "God does not place dice".
In the next blog let me present the integrated time and space calculations we mastered since time immemorial. Anyone can reject these as mythological but can some one LOGICALLY refute the science of breath management proposed by Sage Patanjali and that is present in our Vedas?
If you find it difficult to assimilate the math in this article, then ignore it and hit your bed with the thought that our ancestors were smarter than us than we have been told in all our text books.
So, whats your breathing rhythm?
Happy reading!
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